Animals have no rights

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2002)

A extreme sense of unease runs throughout 28 days later, particularly in the terrific first act which sees hero Jim (the luckiest man ever to have been involved in a road accident)awake to find London totally deserted. Londoners especially will sense a distinct chill at this disturbing sequence, shot on eery DV which gives the entire movie (bar the epilogue)a rough disarming look, instead the comfortable crisp image of celluloid that we're all used to. I've never been convinced for the need to use DV up to this point, as 35mm film looks so good, but the overall effect works so well here that i've changed my mind. Rarely for this kind of movie, its not all running and gore; there's some particularly touching scenes, including the billboard in Picadilly Circus saying goodbye to lost or missing relatives (shades of ground zero) and Jim's discovery of his dead parents which leaves a distinct lump in the throat. Its in the middle section that the film lags, particularly on the journey to Manchester in which some character moments slow the pace down considerably, and the final third too closely resembles the Beach for my liking (you'll see what I mean) but at least Jim doesn't turn into a bad playstation game so its not all bad. Lets face it, any movie that has Manchester in flames has got to be worth a couple of hours of your time hasn't it?